


i'd never want from the cherry tree

by milominderbinder



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Defining the Relationship, M/M, Mild Smut, Misunderstandings, Romantic Gestures, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-31 02:42:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6452290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/milominderbinder/pseuds/milominderbinder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bitty's been sent flowers.  His friends think this means the guy who serves macaroni in the cafeteria is in love with him.  </p><p>Bitty thinks this might mean he's dating Jack Zimmermann.  Unfortunately, he's not <i>sure</i>.  Jack is very hard to read, okay?</p>
            </blockquote>





	i'd never want from the cherry tree

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thefaceofno](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thefaceofno/gifts).



> my first ever check please fic is dedicated to the birthversary of an actual precious gem of a human being [jay](http://bahoreal.tumblr.com), which is fitting since per's the one who got me obsessed with this fandom to begin with and now i can never go back. jay you are one of my fave people on this weird lil planet, you make me laugh and smile and think and i adore your art so much and your presence on my dash and/or face on my snapchat is like a daily blessing and i hope you have the most fantastic year it is possible to have! here's a dumb fic about nothing in celebration of how happy i am u were born!
> 
> title from hozier cus fave <3

The flowers arrive on Tuesday morning.

They’re roses, all red and orange and yellow and pink mixed in together, and they’re in the perfect stage of blooming, and they’re beautiful.  There’s no card.

“You’re sure they’re for  _ me?”  _ Eric checks.

The delivery guy only has his eyes most of the way open, and is snapping his gum every other second.

“If you’re Eric Bittle,” he says, slowly, like maybe Bitty’s stupid, “Then sure.”

“But who’re they from?”

A beat of silence.  Another snap of gum.

“Dude, I’m a delivery guy.  I literally don’t know.  Can you just sign, please?”

Bitty signs, and the guy leaves, and then Bitty is stood in an open doorway with a bunch of roses and a whole other bunch of confusing thoughts.

The only person he can really imagine sending him flowers is his mom, but that seems like kind of a stretch, and the only achievements he’s made lately are getting a B+ on his Biology midterm or perfecting that recipe for twisted cinnamon rolls.  Neither of which seem like enough of a big deal to send him flowers for the first time in his life all the way from Georgia.  But if it’s not his mom, then the only other idea that sounds remotely possible is --

“Check it out, Bits has an admirer!” Holster yells loud enough to reach every room of the Haus.  Bitty had actually forgotten him and Ransom were even there.  There’s an excited Chowder-pitch squeal from upstairs, and then the immediate pounding of footsteps.  Bitty gulps, and heads into the kitchen like maybe he can get away from it all in there.

The team don’t know about him and Jack.  Nobody knows about him and Jack.  Bitty’s not even sure  _ he  _ knows about him and Jack.  On the list of things he knows about, there’s those first glorious and dreamlike kisses at graduation, and then some tentative not-quite-talking-about-it when Jack came to visit for the Fourth of July, followed by quite a lot more kissing and a little more even than that under the soft sheets of Bitty’s bed, because really, he’s never been dumb enough to waste a chance like having Jack freaking Zimmermann in his room in the dark wearing nothing but sweatpants and a smile.  But they still hadn’t really talked about it after that.  Now Jack’s in Providence, and Bitty knows that he’s been to visit Jack three times in the past two months.  He knows they’ve had very, very good sex.  He knows they talk a lot on Skype, and that Jack texts him goodnight every single night without fail.  Bitty knows they’re something -- he’s just not sure that what they are is a couple.  And he’s  _ definitely  _ not sure Jack’s the one who sent him flowers.

“Bitty!” Chowder slides into the room on his odd socks, toothbrush clutched in one hand.  He gasps when he sees the roses Bitty’s still dazedly holding.  “Oh my god!  Who’re they from?”

“I -- I’m not sure,” Bitty says, which is partly stalling but partly the truth.  He knows his cheeks are pink as a Georgia sunset so he turns away from the faces watching him and tries to busy himself with finding something to put the flowers in.

“Bro, I bet it’s that guy in the cafeteria who always gives you extra macaroni,” Ransom says, clapping Bitty hard on the back.

“Yeah,” Bitty agrees, voice weak, even though he’s never noticed any guy in the cafeteria or anything to do with extra macaroni.  “Must be him.”

“Get it, Bits!” Holster’s grin is audible even when Bitty’s not looking at his face.

\-----

Bitty puts the roses in a big old protein powder tin full of water, which is the closest thing the Haus has to a vase, apparently.  He sets them on the windowsill of his room at first, but he keeps getting distracted by them when he’s trying to do homework.  He takes them downstairs and puts them on the kitchen table, instead.

Not having them in his room is even more distracting.  An hour later he brings them back up and sneaks glances at them every five seconds for the rest of the night.

\-----

[ Nov.10 -- 10:12 -- From: Jack ]

Night, Bitty

 

[ Nov.10 -- 10:12 -- From: Jack ]

<3

 

_**DRAFT:** [ Nov.10 -- 10:12 -- To: Jack ] _

_ Hey Jack, you didn’t send me flowers today, did you? _

_ **MESSAGE NOT SENT** _

 

[ Nov.10 -- 10.13 -- To: Jack ]

goodnight, sweetheart

\-----

Bitty calls Shitty at nine AM the next morning, when he knows Shitty will be awake because he has a lecture at nine thirty, but will also still be too groggy to ask a lot of questions.

“I need you to tell me, in a totally hypothetical sense --” Bitty flips a pancake rather forcefully with one hand. “-- whether you think Jack is, hypothetically, the kind of guy to send hypothetical flowers to someone he was hypothetically dating.”

Bitty is having a staring contest with the flowers as he says this.  He’s brought them downstairs again, and now they sit on the windowsill, watching him as he cooks.

“Is there such a thing as hypothetical flowers?” Shitty asks, voice crackly on the phone line.  “Woah.”

He sounds like he might be a little bit high.  Possibly Bitty timed this badly and Shitty hasn’t even been to sleep yet.

“Focus up,” Bitty tells him.  “Would Jack send  _ any _ kind of flowers to someone he might be dating?”

“Guys bringing girls flowers is such a gender stereotype, man,” Shitty says.  Oh, right.  Shitty still thinks Jack’s straight.  To Bitty that idea is almost laughable these days.  “Jack knows better than to enforce those roles, shit.  It’s like, what if guys would like to get sent flowers sometimes?  I would love to get sent flowers.  Flowers are beautiful, man, I’m secure enough in my masculinity to admit that.  Bits, tell Lardo to send me flowers.”

Bitty sighs.  Yeah, Shitty is definitely high, and past his usual point of high where he’s still useful for advice.

“Lord, alright, Shitty.  I’ll be sure and tell her that.”

Bitty hangs up just as he realises his pancake has burnt.  What a day already.

\-----

Ransom and Holster descend on him in the library that afternoon.

“Bro, we asked around about macaroni guy.”

“His name’s Moses, which is a totally sick name.”

“He’s a double major in Politics and Drama, so you  _ know  _ he’s some kind of interesting.”

“He was Jesus in  _ Jesus Christ Superstar  _ last year and his abs are totally shredded.”

“He was in a Women’s Studies class with Shitty once and Shitty says he’s totally not a douchebag.” 

“He likes Hockey!  He comes to all our home games, bruh, every single one.”

“And best of all -- he doesn’t just have mad pull with the macaroni.  On Tuesdays he mans the  _ ice cream station.” _

Bitty shuts his textbook and looks to the skies for strength.

“Gee,” he says, hoping he doesn’t sound quite so desperately sarcastic as he feels.  “Y’all are too kind, asking all that around for me.  But don’t worry, I’m perfectly capable of handling my own dating life.”

There’s a long pause, and for just a moment there, Bitty is naive enough to think maybe he’s gotten through to them.

Then they both gasp.

“You’re  _ already dating him _ ?”

\-----

Lardo climbs in his window from the reading room that night, smelling like smoke and looking at him with far too much insight.

“So I hear you’re dating Macaroni Moses,” she says.  Bitty groans.

“I swear, Ransom and Holster better not be spreading that around, if they know what’s good for them!”  Lardo just keeps looking at him, and it occurs to him that he should clarify the whole thing is completely false, but before he can get around to it she cuts him off with --

“This mean you’re over Jack?”

Bitty opens his mouth.  Shuts it.  Opens it again.  Shuts it.

“I -- you --” He waves a finger at her and tries to look menacing.  “I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Right.”  She looks unimpressed.

“Shitty wants you to send him flowers.”  See, Bitty is just as good as Lardo at bringing up historically avoided topics.  She rolls her eyes.

“Don’t have sex in the cafeteria,” she says, turning to climb back out onto the reading room.  “It’s super gross.  I’m speaking from experience.”

Bitty’s still stuttering at her back when she closes the window behind her.

\-----

“I’m just so happy for you,” Chowder says later, his smile full of braces and pure, puppy-like innocence.  “Oh, oh, we can go on double dates!”

Bitty is too fond of his precious infant son to even break the news that he’s not dating some random guy from the cafeteria.  

“Why don’t we go make cookies?” he suggests, not even trying to be subtle with the subject change because, well, it’s Chowder.  “I bought a shark shaped cookie cutter last week.”

And like that, all talk of cafeteria-dwelling pseudo-boyfriends is abandoned.  At least there’s one person in this house Bitty knows how to handle.

\-----

Dex and Nursey are the only ones who seem to not care at all about Bitty’s love life.  It’s incredibly refreshing.  If only they didn’t drive him so insane, he would totally resolve to hang out with those two more often.

\-----

The flowers keep moving from room to room with him, taking over his entire brain with their hypotheticalness, and Bitty finally gives in on Friday.  He skips his classes, borrows a car from Lardo’s Art Friend in exchange for five no-questions-asked pies at a future date, puts the flowers securely in the passenger seat, and drives the forty minutes to Providence.

“Did you send me these flowers?” he asks when Jack opens his front door, wearing sweats and a hockey t-shirt and looking incredibly confused.  Bitty’s holding the protein tin full of roses to his chest protectively so he can’t even lean up to give Jack’s adorable face a hello kiss.

“Bitty?” Jack says, though, yes,  _ obviously  _ it’s Bitty, he’s stood right there for God’s sake.  He’s also cold, cus it’s November and he’s a gentle southern belle and Jack knows this, so he doesn’t put up a fight when Bitty pushes inside the house before getting to any of the explanations.  Bitty heads right to Jack’s living room, Jack trailing on his heels.  Bitty sets down the flowers, takes off his jacket, and turns back around.

Jack is right there, and kisses him.

“The flowers are from me,” Jack whispers when they break apart, a moment or a minute later.  Bitty’s a little bit dazed.  “Didn’t you know that?”

“There was no card,” Bitty says breathlessly.  Jack’s cheeks turn pink.

“Oh,” he mumbles, straightening up but not stepping away.  “I ordered them online, I didn’t really know how to -- make there be a card, on the website.  I thought they’d at least say who they were from.”   
  
There’s this adorable little furrow between his dark brows, like he’s disappointed in both himself and the evils of technology and possibly the adorable little flower shop as well.  Eric wants to kiss him again, wants to smooth out all the worry in his face.  He wants to say  _ I love you, you ridiculous boy  _ but considering he doesn’t even know if they’re a couple, it seems a little soon for that.

“Why?” he says, instead of any of that.

Jack looks simultaneously amused and uncomfortable, which is actually a pretty common look for him.  His big sad eyes are so kind, and he bends his knees a little, hands finding Bitty’s waist, so they’re close enough to the same height.

“I was just thinking about you, and I wanted to.”  Jack shrugs with one big shoulder.  His hands hold onto Bitty’s waist a little tighter.  They’re so warm, even through the cotton of Bitty’s shirt.  “Boyfriends do that kind of stuff, no?”

Boyfriends.

Oh.

Well if that’s what’s been going on here, Bitty’s certainly not going to complain.

He leans up on his tiptoes, cups Jack’s jaw with one hand and holds onto his bicep with the other, and kisses him.  It’s an everything-I-have kind of a kiss.  Their mouths crushing together, Bitty’s tongue shoving between Jack’s lips, their teeth scraping at each other, breath hot against each other’s mouths.  Jack’s arms slide to wrap fully around Bitty’s waist, pull him tighter, ‘til their legs are tangling where they stand and Jack’s making these soft little moans that sound like they’re being ripped right from his chest and Bitty’s got his eyes screwed so tight shut it almost hurts, losing himself in their hot wet desperate crush of a kiss.  

Their height difference can make kissing like this a little awkward, but it can also be a blessing when all of a sudden Jack’s hands slide under Bitty’s ass and hoist him up, Bitty gasping into Jack’s mouth.  He wraps his legs around tight, hands sliding into Jack’s hair, and finds himself being walked into Jack’s bedroom, pushed down onto his bed.  Bitty keeps his legs wrapped around Jack’s waist and when they’re horizontal it’s even more satisfying -- he can feel the weight of Jack’s body pushing him down into the mattress, Jack’s dick grinding up against him.  Bitty pulls at Jack’s hair, sucks on Jack’s swollen lips, and Jack gasps, all soft and sweet.  

Bitty finally opens his eyes, and Jack is looking at him like nothing Bitty’s ever seen.  Like adoration melted down.  It’s overwhelming.

“Je t’aime,” Jack mumbles into Bitty’s mouth.  Bitty doesn’t know enough French to be sure he hasn’t misheard, he probably  _ has  _ misheard, he ignores it and just kisses Jack hard, even as something warm and impossibly tender blooms all through his chest.  It makes him desperate and restless, gets him pulling at Jack’s clothes and sucking hickeys onto Jack’s chest and groaning against him, and after that, the night is all a blur of heat and movement and deep sensation that wrecks him from the inside out, leaves him spilling all over Jack’s chest and being kissed with frantic lips the whole time.  When Jack comes, Bitty swears he gasps those words again, right into the crook of Bitty’s neck where he’s been biting at it until the skin is wrecked with bruises.  

“Oh, by the way,” Bitty says much later, when they’re softly curled up beneath the sheets and Jack’s laying half across Bitty’s chest, letting Bitty pet his hair, “The whole Haus now thinks I’m dating some theater-kid politician called Macaroni Moses.”

Jack tenses a little under Bitty’s hands.

“You’re not, are you?”

Oh, Lord, this boy.

“No, Jack.  In case I haven’t made it incredibly obvious yet, I’m very much gone on you.”

Jack relaxes again, and presses half a kiss against Bitty’s chest.

“Good,” he says, “That’s good,” and then, as he starts to drift off to sleep all curled up in tangled sheets, “Je t’aime, Bitty.”

He’s quiet but speaks so clearly and gently that Bitty knows there’s no way he’s heard wrong.  

“Oh, sweetheart,” Bitty whispers back, looking down at Jack’s hair.  “I love you too.”

Which, really, is probably what Jack’s flowers have been trying to tell him the whole time.

**Author's Note:**

> i'd love any feedback on characterisation since this is my first foray into this fandom! and you can find me on [tumblr](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com) if you wanna talk to me about checkplease or send me prompts or anything <3


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